UK police to look into Kate Moss drug allegations

Police in London said yesterday they will look into allegations that British supermodel Kate Moss has taken cocaine, after she was dropped from a planned ad campaign by global fashion chain H and M.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur "has reviewed the matter and has asked officers from the specialist crime directorate to look at reports, as highlighted in a national newspaper."

She would not say whether Moss, 31, who was alleged in the Daily Mirror newspaper last week to have snorted cocaine in a west London studio where her rock-star lover Pete Doherty was recording, would be questioned.

In a statement from its Stockholm head office, H and M said Tuesday it was dropping Moss from a pre-Christmas advertising campaign "after having evaluated the situation."

"We have decided to cancel the planned campaign with Kate Moss as it would be inconsistent with H and M's clear dissociation with drugs," H and M spokeswoman Liv Asarnoj said.

The move is a turnaround from the company's announcement on Saturday that it would stand by Moss, at 31, a veteran of the modelling industry.

"After further evaluation we have decided that she will be replaced by another model," Asarnoj added.

Photos of Moss, which had already been shot for the youth fashion chain's autumn-winter collection, designed by Stella McCartney, will be replaced by a different campaign when it is launched on Nov. 10.

On Friday, the Daily Mirror published grainy video camera stills which appeared to show Moss using cocaine.

Other newspapers took up the story eagerly, with tabloid titles running a series of allegations about Moss involving sex and drugs in the following days.

Spokeswomen for Christian Dior and Chanel refused to comment Tuesday on the decision by H and M.

Moss has refused to comment on the allegations. In previous interviews she has confessed to using drugs in the past, but said she did not do so any longer.

In 1998, the model -- who features in ads for Chanel, Christian Dior, Burberry and Rimmel cosmetics -- spent time in Britain's exclusive Priory detox clinic after admitting that her party-centered lifestyle had taken its toll.

She has a two-year-old daughter, Lila Grace, with her ex-partner, magazine publisher Jefferson Hack.

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